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Eureka Cop With M-16 in the Center of Town Thinks He's in a Video Game

Posted by copwatch | Thu, 01/13/2011 - 1:16pm story

REPORT FROM MORNING OF JAN 13, 2011

This morning, about 8:20am, I saw a Eureka cop park a police vehicle on 4th St. (Hwy 101) between N and M, across from Laudry Land. When I saw him park, I also observed another Eureka Police Department (EPD) vehicle go toward 3rd Street in the same area. The sole cop in the parked car got out, grabbed his M-16, and walked to the corner of M and 4th. There, he stood near a bush, behind the corner of a building, looking like he was hiding. The young cop and his big gun were in plain view from across the 101 (4th St) where I was- and several other people noticed him and the weapon. There were no people around or near the building corner and bush that he was hiding behind, no one coming at him from any direction, I asked him "What are you doing?" He looked at me (from across the street of course) and it seemed like he thought he was in a game of hide-n-seek. I told him "There's no one there."

After maybe a minute, a pedestrian who was casually crossing from one side of M St near the Performance Plus gas station to the M St corner where cop and his big gun were, at first did not notice the cop, then when he did, paused for a minute. The cop appeared to ask him a question, and the man, keeping some distance, appeared to respond, then walked across the street to where I stood with another observer. The other observer was one of several people at the Laudromat who had seen the cop get out of his car and arm himself with the M-16.

We then noticed that there were other Eureka cops in the parking lot of the Performance Plus gas station. So, on one side of the station, was the cop "hiding" with his big gun, and on the other side were other EPD cops and their cars- visible. Those Eureka cops were Tim Jones, Louis Altic, and, if I saw correctly, Pamela Wilcox. One or more of them spoke with a woman from the gas station, and then Big Gun cop decided (from his position at the corner) to go back to his car and be on his way. Before he got back to the car, I crossed the street and asked him his name. His response: "Yeah, right."

So, is that what happens when someone from the gas station calls the cops? The cops surround the station and one cop hides, in waiting, on the corner of a main road and pedestrian thoroughfare with an M-16? And then he doesn't even think he needs to identify himself (even though the law requires it)?

He must think he is in a video game. Or still part of a crew of invaders in a far away land where he's been told that "everyone could be the enemy." (Many newer cop recruits just came out of Iraq and Afghanistan.)

Very scary.

In video games, the players can shoot a bunch of targets dead, blow em up, one after the other (reminds me of the real life Wikileaks 'Collateral Murder' video), and it doesn't matter. And in the video game, if the player dies, he gets more lives.

Well, we're not your targets, EPD, and this ain't a video game.

--This report was written by Verbena

M-16 Rifle

*Here's some of what the U.S. Army Fact Files website posts about the M-16:

MissionDeter and, if necessary, repel adversaries by enabling individuals and small units to engage targets with accurate, lethal, direct fire.

*Here's what one Vietnam vet (who seems to be proud of, or at least unrepentant, about "mowing people down") posted about the M-16 rifle:

The Armed Forces in Vietnam used many kinds of weapons from awesome B-52 bombers to the lowly bayonet. We had the ability to destroy enemy bases in a single attack, or mow down a hundred men in one sweep. But the weapon most important to the man on the ground was his M-16 rifle. It was the weapon of the infantryman - and you felt naked without it. It was as natural to have it beside you as it was to eat three meals a day.

The rifle was designed to give the infantryman fire superiority over the enemy by providing rapid fire power. Its maximum rate of fire was 650-700 rounds per minute. Of course, changing magazines every nineteen rounds, we never reached that speed. But a single magazine still emptied quickly on full automatic. To sustain fire superiority, the men in a squad took turns firing and reloading. That way we kept a steady stream of lead raining down on our opponents.

Comments

To see an EPD officer girt himself to go to war and then watch him surveil this establishment waiting for some "armed robber" or other "dangerous suspect" to come out, and then realizing it was nothing more serious than someone who, perhaps, had a question of the price of their cigarrettes... He stood down with disregard to what any person who might have seen him thought.